After I read the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, I find that Nacirema is a tribe of “magic-hidden people” (Miner 507). In the article, the author writes, “they are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Creel the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east” (Miner 503). The author clearly states that the Nacirema live as a little-known North American group. They are really Americans, because I find that Nacirema spelled backwards is American. Besides, the article depicts, “It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with
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Nacirema have fascination with the mouth, which is beneficial to the society. Furthermore, Nacirema women have their special rites. They bake their heads in small ovens four times a month, which shows that they pay more attention to beauty like modern women. In addition, I believe that the medicine men and listener appearing in the article represents doctors and psychologist in the modern society. In general, Nacirema are identified as humans. In the article, the author describes a variety of shocking rites among the Nacirema to satire as well as criticize the ethnocentrism of our modern society. I think one of the aims of anthropology is to reduce modern people’s ethnocentrism. He describes in this way, because he wants to make readers reflect that we cannot insist on the point that the culture we are immersed in are always superior and ideal. The author hopes we can abandon the thinking of examining other culture only from our own cultural perspective. In my opinion, we consider the behavior of alien nation is confusing while what we do also seems strange and bizarre in their …show more content…
Lamarck believed adaption was the main process of biological evolution, and he did an example to explain why the necks of giraffes became longer. The example explained that the influence of acquired environment could help living organisms develop the long-term genetic markers from parents; these genetic markers could pass from one generation to the next by the protection mechanism. Although Lamarck came up with the idea of evolution, the explanation of his theory was certainly too simplistic due to the limited scientific level at that time. As for Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, it is defined as the preservation of beneficial individual differences as well as variations, and the destruction of injurious variations. The theory consists of four parts: excessive multiplication, struggle for existence, inheritance and variations, and survival of the fittest. It can be explained that the reproduction of organisms always exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment. Besides, the intraspecific competition happens such as the struggle for food, mates, and habitats. Also, the variations of organisms are beneficial for survival but sometimes they are counteractive.
Nacirema have fascination with the mouth, which is beneficial to the society. Furthermore, Nacirema women have their special rites. They bake their heads in small ovens four times a month, which shows that they pay more attention to beauty like modern women. In addition, I believe that the medicine men and listener appearing in the article represents doctors and psychologist in the modern society. In general, Nacirema are identified as humans. In the article, the author describes a variety of shocking rites among the Nacirema to satire as well as criticize the ethnocentrism of our modern society. I think one of the aims of anthropology is to reduce modern people’s ethnocentrism. He describes in this way, because he wants to make readers reflect that we cannot insist on the point that the culture we are immersed in are always superior and ideal. The author hopes we can abandon the thinking of examining other culture only from our own cultural perspective. In my opinion, we consider the behavior of alien nation is confusing while what we do also seems strange and bizarre in their …show more content…
Lamarck believed adaption was the main process of biological evolution, and he did an example to explain why the necks of giraffes became longer. The example explained that the influence of acquired environment could help living organisms develop the long-term genetic markers from parents; these genetic markers could pass from one generation to the next by the protection mechanism. Although Lamarck came up with the idea of evolution, the explanation of his theory was certainly too simplistic due to the limited scientific level at that time. As for Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, it is defined as the preservation of beneficial individual differences as well as variations, and the destruction of injurious variations. The theory consists of four parts: excessive multiplication, struggle for existence, inheritance and variations, and survival of the fittest. It can be explained that the reproduction of organisms always exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment. Besides, the intraspecific competition happens such as the struggle for food, mates, and habitats. Also, the variations of organisms are beneficial for survival but sometimes they are counteractive.